Summarily, the case study “You Manage It! 2” is about a guy named Joe in this case who rose up in rank at his workplace from the corporate level to the rank of an executive manager. However, the expectations of Joe that he thought would come as an advantage of the change in rank is turned down on the point he realizes that the workload that comes with the rank of an executive manager is much as compared to the corporate ranks and he has to work extra as compared to before then. He is entitled to working 6 or 7 days of the week moving to and from a different location only leaving him with the weekends to be with his family. This case generally proves the point of need of work-life balance by a growing number of individuals as opposed to few people who are willing to go to the extremes of sacrificing their personal life in satisfaction of their ambitions. From the case study, it is clear that almost 85 percent of job seekers decline to job opportunities because of the lack of work-life balance.
Reply to the Critical Thinking Questions
Types of Jobs Best Suited For Flexibility About Hours and Office Location
In as much as there is a bigger growing number of employees estimated to be almost 85 percent who are seeking for employment opportunities with work-life balance, there are jobs that offer the flexibility that is necessary for the work-life balance. Some of the job opportunities that offer this kind of flexibility include the opportunity of a part-time executive, account manager, software developer, project manager or even business analyst. Additionally, there are also other job opportunities like online tax advisor or curriculum development. Such jobs are flexible because are salary based and dependent on the completion of jobs on some independent schedule ( Kossek, & Lautsch, 2018) . However, there are also some other job opportunities that do not favor the flexibility that helps achieve work-life balance or to some extent are less flexible. These particular job opportunities include jobs like a surgeon , lawyer, firefighter , commercial Airline pilot, a registered nurse and even journalism because these particular jobs require almost full-time presence at the workplace hence limiting the flexibility that can enhance the achievement of work-life balance.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Does the Intensive Use of Self-Managed Teams make it Easier or More Difficult for Employees to Achieve Work-Life Balance?
The intensive use of self-managed teams makes it difficult for employees to achieve work-life balance is in the sense that the employees are not bound to opportunities for scheduling tasks and prioritization of completion of projects. This is because the self-managed teams create barriers because it can make it difficult for the arrangement of personal preferences for the members not working on a custom schedule ( Caesar, & Fei, 2018) .
Competencies Required in Organizations
Some of the learnings that can be drawn from the case that is related to the competencies required in organizations include the time management and priority setting as well as work scheduling and planning. Time management is a competency and a responsibility that is reflected in the case as it applies to all employees of all levels and considered by several organizations because for one to be a competent employee it is necessary to be time-efficient and effective. This implies that the capability to adequately manage individual time and balance it well without interfering with the management of other’s time as well as being able to take control of interruptions by shaping the conduct of individuals with varying priorities ( Sanghi, 2016) . In addition to this, the concept of work scheduling and planning is also a competency considered by organizations that are reflected in the case. Sanghi (2016), the competency of work scheduling and planning relies on time management and is obligatory for employees of the managerial or supervisory ranks like Joe who in this case which is promoted to the rank of an executive employee. This competency is all about the control of tasks that relate to the workforce by using the management techniques.
References
Caesar, L. D., & Fei, J. (2018). Work–life balance. In Managing Human Resources in the Shipping Industry (pp. 107-128). Routledge.
Kossek, E. E., & Lautsch, B. A. (2018). Work–Life Flexibility for Whom? Occupational Status and Work-Life Inequality in Upper, Middle, and Lower Level Jobs. Academy of Management Annals , 12 (1), 5-36.
Sanghi, S. (2016). The handbook of competency mapping: understanding, designing and implementing competency models in organizations . SAGE Publications India.